In recent years, with development of technologies, there has been proposed a variety of ways to display a television program and a web page made available on the Internet on the screen of a single apparatus by switching the screen from the television program to the web page or vice versa.
There also exists an apparatus having not only functions to watch a television program and inspect a web page, but also other functions such as a function to watch a video program, functions to send and receive emails and an album function to display a static picture stored on a predetermined storage medium.
In addition, the apparatus having such a variety of functions is also provided with a predetermined button to be operated in order to display an index panel (or an operation panel) on a display unit so as to allow the user to switch from one function to another with ease.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a typical display of the conventional index panel.
On the top row of the index panel 1, there are displayed channel buttons 2 to be operated in order to switch the screen from a displayed television program to another. From the left to the right on the second row, there are displayed a video button 3, an Internet button 4, a mail button 5 and an album button 6. The video button 3 is a button to be operated in order to switch to a video input. The Internet button 4 is a button to be operated in order to establish a connection with the Internet. The mail button 5 is a button to be operated in order to send or receive an email. The album button 6 is a button to be operated in order to display a static picture.
Thus, even while the user is watching a television program, the user is allowed to display the index panel 1 and, for example, operate the Internet button 4 to establish a connection with the Internet so that a web page can be displayed.
With such an index panel 1, however, there is raised a problem of an incapability of directly displaying a desired web page.
That is to say, in order for the user to display a desired web page with a television program appearing on the screen, the user must carry out operations to first display the index panel 1 and then operate the Internet button 4 before selecting the desired web site among those cataloged in a bookmark or the like.
Thus, by separately providing the index panel 1 with a button allowing a direct access to a desired web site to be made in the same way as an access, which is made when the channel of a television program is switched from one to another, further improvement of the operatability can be expected.
In addition, in the present state where development of network technologies eliminates a fence between television programs and contents (or web pages) made available on the Internet, it is desirable to provide a capability of displaying contents in the same way as displaying a selected television program.